By Paul Miller, Vice President of Marketing, HPE Software-defined and Cloud Group“Oh baby, baby, it’s a cloud world...it’s hard to get by just upon a public cloud…”OK, so I’ve mangled Cat Stevens’ 1971 classic song, Wild World, but you get the point. It’s a cloud world out there today — with enterprise IT departments moving to the cloud in record numbers. But is it just public cloud? No, not by a long shot.To address the needs of various workloads, enterprises are turning to hybrid IT solutions. A 2017 cloud computing trends survey found that 85% of enterprises are pursuing a multi-cloud strategy with each running workloads in an average of 1.8 public clouds and 2.3 private clouds.Another report by 451 Research revealed that Microsoft® Azure® was the fastest growing cloud platform in 2016 with 116% growth in revenues — compared to just 55% for Amazon Web Services (AWS). So why is Azure so popular? Because it … [Read more...] about Oh Baby, Baby, It’s a Cloud World … It’s Hard To Get By Just Upon a Public Cloud

Some people call them “cloud hacks,” which is perhaps more accurate than “cloud tricks,” but the enterprises I work with don’t like the term “hack.”Whatever you prefer to call them, here are three shortcuts you can create to achieve specific end states.[ The cloud storage security gap—and how to close it. | The InfoWorld Deep Dive: How to make document sharing really work in Office 365. ]Cloud trick No. 1: Customize your consoleBoth Amazon Web Services and Microsoft have consoles that provide a master control view of resources on their clouds. With them, you can see what’s available and what you have already provisioned.Most public cloud IaaS consoles let you configure your console via drag and drop, so the more-accessed services are at the top. But this customized view makes you much more productive.Cloud trick No. 2: Learn and use the CLIsMost of us use the GUIs that public IaaS cloud providers offer. However, most IaaS cloud … [Read more...] about How to better manage your public cloud services: 3 tricks

By Gary Thome, VP and Chief Engineer, HPE Software-Defined and Cloud GroupWe make thousands of decisions every day – 35,000+, if you believe internet sources. Some are small and insignificant; others make a big impact. If you are a corporate executive or an IT manager, one of the bigger decisions you may be struggling with is whether public cloud is right for your business. And if it is, which applications should you deploy in the public cloud? Which ones should stay on-premises?And what about private cloud and newer technologies you’ve been hearing so much about -- hyperconverged and composable infrastructure?Considerations when choosing a cloud-based solutionDetermining a cloud strategy is a complex decision, one that takes a great deal of research and planning. Public cloud is extremely popular right now due to low upfront costs and the increased speed and flexibility it provides. Yet, as I’ve mentioned in previous articles, public cloud isn’t perfect … [Read more...] about How to Make Hybrid IT Simple: The Best of Both Worlds With On-Premises IT and Public Cloud

Despite recent revelations regarding the NSA's extensive surveillance of email messages, Internet traffic and mobile communications, no one expects people or businesses to discard these essential habits and tools. In fact, I believe cloud-based alternatives to traditional, on-premise software and systems will continue to expand in 2014, as providers offer more deployment choices. The skepticism surrounding the "cloud" terminology among some IT and corporate decision-makers is increasingly being converted into measurable business benefits by organizations that have adopted Software as a Service, Infrastructure as a Service and Platform as a Service solutions. As a result, fewer corporate executives are wondering what the cloud is or why they should consider cloud-based services. Instead, they are now examining where, when and how they should take advantage of these on-demand alternatives. In response to these trends, every market researcher is predicting significant growth for public, … [Read more...] about 2014 Looks Bright for Cloud Services

Skeptics who disparage the concept of the so-called private cloud and doubt its relevance should think again, according to research from IDC. In a recent survey, IDC asked IT executives about their preference for using a private versus a public cloud. Fifty-five percent said that a private cloud was more appealing than a public cloud, and 22 percent said they were equally appealing, said Frank Gens, an IDC chief analyst who spoke on Thursday at an IDC Tech Outlook event in Seattle. [ Follow the cloud with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing blog and Cloud Computing Report newsletter. ] [ Download the public cloud megaguide PDF: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Joyent compared. | Stay up on the cloud with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing Report newsletter. ]There are varying definitions for a private cloud, and some people say it's just a new term to describe IT integration efforts that have been in the works for years, he said. IDC defines a private cloud as an internal corporate cloud resource … [Read more...] about Survey: IT wants public and private cloud services

Dell will launch its first cloud infrastructure service later this year through a partnership with VMware, continuing its push to move beyond PCs and into higher-margin software and services. The service will be based on VMworld's vCloud platform and delivered from Dell's data center in Plano, Texas. Customers will be able to rent compute and storage capacity on a pay-as-you-go basis, or on longer-term contracts that include reserved or dedicated hardware. [ Follow the cloud with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing blog and Cloud Computing Report newsletter. ] [ Download the public cloud megaguide PDF: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Joyent compared. | Stay up on the cloud with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing Report newsletter. ]Dell will also offer consulting services for companies to build private clouds in their own data centers, also using vCloud. And it will offer to build "hybrid" clouds using VMware's Connector software, which links private and public cloud environments. Dell planned to … [Read more...] about Dell to rival HP, IBM with public cloud service

Joyent is upgrading its public cloud service with better analytics and the ability to run Linux and Windows, as it hopes to persuade CIOs to move more applications to the company's cloud, it said on Thursday. So far, enterprises that want to run their applications on Joyent's cloud have had to rewrite their software to run on Joyent's SmartOS. But now the company has added the ability to run applications on Windows or Linux, as well. [ In the data center today, the action is in the private cloud. InfoWorld's experts take you through what you need to know to do it right in our "Private Cloud Deep Dive" PDF special report. | Also check out our "Cloud Security Deep Dive," our "Cloud Storage Deep Dive," and our "Cloud Services Deep Dive." ] [ Download the public cloud megaguide PDF: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Joyent compared. | Stay up on the cloud with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing Report newsletter. ]"There are a lot of developers out there that say, 'I just want Linux or I just … [Read more...] about Joyent takes aim at Amazon with public cloud upgrade

If the BYOD (bring your own device) trend wasn't flummoxing enough for IT admins, now they're increasingly contending with BYOC (bring your own cloud), where end-users enlist public cloud services -- think Amazon Web Services -- without preliminary input or approval from IT. At the same time, according to the findings of a new BMC-sponsored report by Forrester Research titled "Deliver on High Cloud Expectations," most company leaders agree that IT should be responsible for the security and reliability of those services. Forrester spoke to 327 enterprise infrastructure executives and architects at organizations around the globe for the study, which will be officially released to the public on April 26. Its major finding: 58 percent of organizations run mission-critical workloads today in the unmanaged public cloud. The problem is that only 36 percent of these organizations have policies that dictate the practice, so lots of business users are making cloud-buying decisions without any … [Read more...] about Execs to IT: Take these cloud services and manage them

After a year of chatter and several months of private beta testing, HP today announced the public beta of its public cloud services, which the company is billing as part of its overarching hybrid cloud-solution dubbed HP Converged Cloud. HP Cloud Services -- built on OpenStack, HP Converged Infrastructure, and other HP-grown software -- aims to deliver an open source public cloud infrastructure. Five core components comprise HP's Cloud Services: HP Cloud Compute, HP Cloud Object Storage, and HP Cloud Content Delivery Network (CDN), which will enter public beta on May 10, and HP Cloud Block Storage and HP Cloud Relational Database (RDB), which will enter private beta the same day. HP Cloud Compute lets user deploy compute instances on demand and customize instances though RESTful APIs. HP Cloud Object Storage provides scalable, on-demand online storage capacity suited for archiving and backing up data, serving static content for Web applications, and storing large public or private data … [Read more...] about HP advances public cloud as part of ambitious hybrid cloud strategy

Casa and Video is a Brazilian ecommerce site that sells a variety of household goods from air-conditioners to cameras, from bed and bath products to outdoor furniture. The company runs its entire operations on the Amazon Web Services public cloud, computing to storage and running multiple instances with load balancing. Meanwhile, Netflix streams movies and TV programs to members across the Americas, the United Kingdom and Ireland. The company uses Amazon cloud services from many of its data centers and regions. [ Stay on top of the current state of the cloud with InfoWorld's special report, "Cloud computing in 2012." Download it today! | Also check out our "Private Cloud Deep Dive," our "Cloud Security Deep Dive," our "Cloud Storage Deep Dive," and our "Cloud Services Deep Dive." ] [ Get the most out of Google with InfoWorld's quick guide "25 tips and tricks for Google Drive power users." Download the PDF today! | Also check out our Cloud Security Digital Spotlight PDF special report. … [Read more...] about Top 10 enterprise applications for public clouds

IBM has teamed with AT&T to offer secure shared cloud services to customers over private networks rather than the public Internet, the companies said Tuesday. The service to be delivered from early next year is targeted at clients worldwide who are deploying clouds that demand high levels of security and availability, and who often cite security as a key inhibitor to cloud computing adoption, the companies said in a statement. [ Also on InfoWorld: What the 'private cloud' really means. | Learn all about the private cloud -- the most important trend in IT -- with InfoWorld's Private Cloud Digital Spotlight. Download the PDF today! | Stay on top of the current state of the cloud with InfoWorld's special report, "Cloud computing in 2012." ] [ Download the public cloud megaguide PDF: Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Joyent compared. | Stay up on the cloud with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing Report newsletter. ]Customers will be connecting to IBM's cloud computing resources, using … [Read more...] about IBM, AT&T team on cloud services

Private clouds were the right solution for many enterprises that wanted to realize the value of cloud services without actually moving to a public cloud. However, from what I can see, the trend now appears to moving to deployments on public or hybrid cloud models. Gartner seems to agree. Michael Warrilow, a research director at Gartner, says more enterprises will look to use public and hybrid cloud models in 2014 as they realize "it's impossible to private-cloud everything." [ From Amazon Web Services to Windows Azure, see how the elite 8 public clouds compare in the InfoWorld Test Center's review. | Stay up on the cloud with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing Report newsletter. ] [ Give yourself a technology career advantage with InfoWorld's Deep Dive technology reports and Computerworld's career trends reports. GET A 15% DISCOUNT through Jan. 15, 2017: Use code 8TIISZ4Z. ]Although a private cloud is indeed a solid and viable architectural option, it's typically overused. Enterprises that … [Read more...] about The private cloud is giving way to the public cloud

Continuously available recovery is typically thought of as a luxury that only larger businesses can afford, since they're the ones who can fork over the cash for a separate data center. But VMware's newest offering, vCloud Hybrid Service Disaster Recovery (vCHS-DR), is intended to put off-site disaster recovery within the reach of a slew of new customers. vCHS-DR allows customers running VMware vSphere to make live replicas of their running servers to one of VMware's public vCloud Hybrid Service data centers. Both data (via VMware's data stores) and applications running inside an instance of vSphere are replicated to VMware's cloud, and in the event a local instance fails, the cloud instance kicks in with no intervention on an administrator's part. Recovery points can be as little as 15 minutes or as long as 24 hours apart. VMware intends the service to be both affordable and practical. Pricing, which starts at $835 per month, includes 1TB of storage with 10GHz vCPU and 20GB of vRAM … [Read more...] about VMware preps public cloud-powered disaster recovery as a service

Almost every big company has at least a toe in the cloud -- a little Amazon here, a little NetSuite there, maybe a VMware private cloud in development. But few companies declare they plan to go all-in with the public cloud, let alone a Goliath the size of GE. That's precisely where GE is headed, says Chris Drumgoole, COO of IT for GE. In terms of the actual usage today, GE’s public cloud footprint may or may not be much bigger than that of other big corporations. Drumgoole won’t talk specific numbers, but he claims that “north of 90 percent” of the apps deployed by GE this year have been in a public cloud environment. [ From Amazon to Windows Azure, InfoWorld puts IaaS clouds to the test to find out which is best for you. | Stay up on cloud discussions and developments with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing newsletter. ] Before arriving at GE in April 2014, Drumgoole was senior vice president of global operations for Terremark, Verizon’s public cloud … [Read more...] about GE: We’re going all-in with the public cloud

Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot about so-called repatriation. That is, a company launches an application in the public cloud, and it takes off -- so much so that the cost of public cloud services become painful, and the company reels the application back to its own, private cloud to save money. This sounds a little suspect to me. For one thing, moving an application is never as easy as it seems. For another, what sort of private cloud are we talking about and how easily can it scale if you need it to? [ From Amazon to Azure, InfoWorld puts IaaS clouds to the test to find out which is best for you. | Stay up on the cloud with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing newsletter. ]Private clouds are not easy to set up. In fact, very few companies have done it at scale, if you define a private cloud as local infrastructure that behaves more or less like a public cloud. True, it’s getting easier. Microsoft, for example, has its Azure Pack, and Windows Server 2016 promises a big leap toward a … [Read more...] about Public cloud pullback: Real or imagined?

NTT Communications will provide its enterprise customers with direct private connectivity to Microsoft’s and Amazon Web Services' public clouds through a new service, Multi-Cloud Connect. The more dependent enterprises become on public clouds, the more dependent they become on a network connection that doesn't falter. Inconsistent Internet performance has become an impediment to widespread cloud adoption, according to NTT. [ From Amazon to Azure, InfoWorld puts IaaS clouds to the test to find out which is best for you. | Stay up on the cloud with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing newsletter. ]NTT hopes to offer a better performing alternative with its Multi-Cloud Connect, which lets enterprises access public cloud services via its MPLS (Multi-protocol Label Switching) network. The purported advantages include better reliability, faster speeds, lower latency and higher security. Enterprises can take advantage of that when building hybrid clouds where some applications or parts of … [Read more...] about NTT helps integrate private and public clouds with dedicated connectivity

Earlier this year HP let slip that the public cloud may not be a place it wants to compete, and on Wednesday it followed through on that suggestion with an announcement that it will shutter its Helion Public Cloud for good. "We have made the decision to double down on our private and managed cloud capabilities," wrote Bill Hilf, senior vice president and general manager for HP Cloud, in a blog post announcing the news. [ Learn all about the private cloud — a key trend in IT -- with InfoWorld's Private Cloud Digital Spotlight. Download it today! | Stay up on the cloud with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing blog. ] Hybrid infrastructures are "the future of enterprise IT," Hilf wrote, and HP will continue to invest in its Helion OpenStack platform, which powers its Helion CloudSystem private cloud offering. Its Helion Public Cloud, however, will close its doors on Jan. 31, 2016. It's a significant retreat for HP and comes just two weeks before the company will split itself in two … [Read more...] about HP’s Helion Public Cloud will soon ride into the sunset

Public clouds may promise a world of potential benefits, but for companies grappling with data sovereignty and other issues, the risks can loom large. Hoping to ease such concerns, Oracle launched a product on Thursday that effectively puts its public cloud behind the enterprise firewall.Called Oracle Cloud at Customer, the new suite lets companies tap the Oracle Cloud as a fully managed service within their data center, giving them full control.[ Learn all about the private cloud — a key trend in IT -- with InfoWorld's Private Cloud Digital Spotlight. Download it today! | Stay up on the cloud with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing blog. ]"We bring in a cloud machine, which is basically a replica of our public cloud services, and install it at the customer site," said Amit Zavery, senior vice president for the Oracle Cloud Platform, in an interview on Tuesday. "Customers can get the infrastructure, the database, all the public cloud services, but behind the firewall."Customers can pick … [Read more...] about Oracle wants to put its public cloud behind your firewall

It’s an attractive story: Public cloud services that can allocate applications and services to users through a cloud broker. These brokerage systems sit between the consumers of cloud services and the services themselves. Brokers can gather data about the cloud service -- including cost, efficiency, and functionality -- to help you make better decisions about which cloud service best meets the needs of the cloud service consumer. You can place many public and private cloud services behind the broker, then have it broker to the best service for your application. [ Amazon, Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Joyent: InfoWorld puts the top five public clouds to the test. | Stay up on the cloud with InfoWorld's Cloud Computing newsletter. ] Though attractive, the sales pitch is a bit different from the reality. Most cloud-based applications have to be localized for the cloud platform they use. If you've allocated EC2 and S3 instances from AWS and you use the cloud-native features of that … [Read more...] about Cloud services brokers sound better than they really are

Cisco Systems is finding its way into storage through its successful server business. On Tuesday, it's introducing modular systems that can be deployed with many different combinations of computing and storage capacity. Though it's not Cisco's first foray into storage, the UCS S3260 Storage Server offers a density and a freedom of configuration that stands out against other systems, even competing on cost with public cloud services, the company says. [ Control your storage requirements by eliminating data redundancy. InfoWorld lays it all out in our Deep Dive Report on Data Deduplication. | Keep up with the latest approaches to managing information overload and compliance in InfoWorld's Enterprise Data Explosion Digital Spotlight. ]The server was announced at the Cisco Partner Summit in San Francisco. It's the first entry in Cisco's S-Series, a line of systems designed to serve both enterprises and companies that provide cloud services to others. Cisco says the S-Series servers will … [Read more...] about Cisco pits modular storage servers against public clouds